Plateau
lilefitzskinny
Posts: 6 Member
I began calorie counting in January 2019. I started off at 8stone 9.5lbs and for over a month now I have reached a plateau at 7stone 13.5lbs. I am 5ft 2. My goal is to get to 7stone 8lbs And see how I feel. My calorie intake was 1480. Since hitting the plateau I dropped it down to 1300 but find that difficult and I have been more prone to bingeing! I'm just looking for some advice on what I should do now. I have an 11month old son so all my energy goes to him And house duties. For the time being I don't want to introduce exercise as I get too obsessive. Thanks for reading!
1
Replies
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You are already right in the middle of the healthy weight range for your height, and you are aiming for the bottom of that range, so progress will be very slow and can easily hide behind water weight fluctuations.
Typically I would suggest tightening up your logging and ask if you're using a food scale, but you mention not exercise to avoid becoming obsessive. Is that a problem for you with logging as well?
Are you used to being at that low a weight and you are trying to get back there, or would this be a new weight for you?7 -
You're well inside a healthy weight range for your height and so battling for an additional 5 pounds may not be worth the pain and suffering. But if you are totally committed to losing that 5 pounds, consider it a journey of 3-5 months and continue to eat at 1480, being mindful that hormonal fluctuations and other variables of digestion and such can easily mask fat loss (which I suspect is what happened in your "plateau.") Good luck Parenting a little one takes a lot of energy!5
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After having my son I lost the weight I had put on fast. I hit 7st 8lbs which would of been my lowest weight in years. I became obsessed with wanting to lose more I was doing insanity and the gym daily. With that lifestyle and my son it became too much so I gave up. In January I started again but this time I want to see how far I can get to with just diet and no exercise for now! A week ago I hit 7st 11 1/2lbs but being completely honest the past few days I have binged on And off so I'm currently back at my maintained weight. And yes I weigh every single thing. No I don't get obsessive over logging I enjoy calorie counting and am very proud for what I have achieved so far. I find whenever I exercise it all becomes a chore and I lose interest. My boyfriend wants me to go back to 1480 calories and try exercise a bit but I don't want to just yet. He is seeing that 1300 has me struggling! I know it's only 180 calories in the difference but that's the difference of a sandwich lol!0
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How many calories does MFP tell you to eat to lose 0.5lb/week? You are only 5.5lbs from your goal, so losing is going to happen more slowly with a smaller deficit.3
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lilefitzskinny wrote: »After having my son I lost the weight I had put on fast. I hit 7st 8lbs which would of been my lowest weight in years. I became obsessed with wanting to lose more I was doing insanity and the gym daily. With that lifestyle and my son it became too much so I gave up. In January I started again but this time I want to see how far I can get to with just diet and no exercise for now! A week ago I hit 7st 11 1/2lbs but being completely honest the past few days I have binged on And off so I'm currently back at my maintained weight. And yes I weigh every single thing. No I don't get obsessive over logging I enjoy calorie counting and am very proud for what I have achieved so far. I find whenever I exercise it all becomes a chore and I lose interest. My boyfriend wants me to go back to 1480 calories and try exercise a bit but I don't want to just yet. He is seeing that 1300 has me struggling! I know it's only 180 calories in the difference but that's the difference of a sandwich lol!
Given all this, I'm another who'd advocate going back to 1480, chilling there for a while longer (even if your weight holds steady for a while), and waiting it out. The binges are not helping you, and if that's happening, you may possibly also be experiencing some subtle energy loss leading to fatigue leading to reduced daily life activity (perhaps invisibly) causing slightly depressed daily-life calorie burn . . . which would be counter-productive.
So: Maybe go back to 1480, where you can happily stick to the routine; try to relax (stress raises cortisol which can increase water retention temporarily) and try to be OK with maintaining weight for a while; and (if anything on the movement front) try to be conscious of moving a little more in daily life (not exercise). More about that in this thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss
Best wishes!4 -
How many calories does MFP tell you to eat to lose 0.5lb/week? You are only 5.5lbs from your goal, so losing is going to happen more slowly with a smaller deficit.
It says 1480 but I had it at lightly active when I changed it to not really active it came up with a little over 1200 calories which I've tried doing before and it wasn't possible so I changed it to 1300 myself1 -
lilefitzskinny wrote: »After having my son I lost the weight I had put on fast. I hit 7st 8lbs which would of been my lowest weight in years. I became obsessed with wanting to lose more I was doing insanity and the gym daily. With that lifestyle and my son it became too much so I gave up. In January I started again but this time I want to see how far I can get to with just diet and no exercise for now! A week ago I hit 7st 11 1/2lbs but being completely honest the past few days I have binged on And off so I'm currently back at my maintained weight. And yes I weigh every single thing. No I don't get obsessive over logging I enjoy calorie counting and am very proud for what I have achieved so far. I find whenever I exercise it all becomes a chore and I lose interest. My boyfriend wants me to go back to 1480 calories and try exercise a bit but I don't want to just yet. He is seeing that 1300 has me struggling! I know it's only 180 calories in the difference but that's the difference of a sandwich lol!
Given all this, I'm another who'd advocate going back to 1480, chilling there for a while longer (even if your weight holds steady for a while), and waiting it out. The binges are not helping you, and if that's happening, you may possibly also be experiencing some subtle energy loss leading to fatigue leading to reduced daily life activity (perhaps invisibly) causing slightly depressed daily-life calorie burn . . . which would be counter-productive.
So: Maybe go back to 1480, where you can happily stick to the routine; try to relax (stress raises cortisol which can increase water retention temporarily) and try to be OK with maintaining weight for a while; and (if anything on the movement front) try to be conscious of moving a little more in daily life (not exercise). More about that in this thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss
Best wishes!
Thank you for your advice I'm gonna put it back to 1480 and just keep going 😊3
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